US stocks dive at the close as first confirmed US Omicron case triggers sharp reversal



The New York Stock Exchange.

Photo by Spencer Platt.

The US has its first case of a person with the Omicron coronaviruses strain, and US stocks retreated from earlier gains.
The market's three main equity indexes reversed during the afternoon as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed an Omicron infection in California.

The fully vaccined individual returned from South Africa on November 25. The person who is self-quarantining had mild symptoms that are improving and all of their close contacts have tested negative.

The US indexes were at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

The stock market found some support after the private payrolls company, Automatic Data Processing, said private employers added 534,000 jobs in November, a better reading than the 525,000 jobs expected in an Econoday survey of economists. The report was received before the nonfarm payrolls report from the Labor Department.
The S&P 500 was on course to recover from Tuesday's losses when the CEO of Moderna warned that vaccines could be less effective against Omicron. The World Health Organization said the new coronaviruses had a lot of changes.
Ark Invest bought about 49 million worth of Twitter shares on Tuesday, taking advantage of the stock's drop after Jack Dorsey said he would step down as CEO.
Ray Dalio warned investors against trying to time the market as it faces uncertainty about the Omicron coronaviruses variant.

The price of gold rose to $1,780.62 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year bond fell 2 basis points.
The start of a meeting by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries caused oil prices to fall. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude fell to $65.57 per barrel.
The virtual currency fell to $56,987.07.
Business Insider has an original article.